Recently, the House of Representatives passed the DOPA Bill. What is DOPA you ask?

This bill effectively bans from schools and libraries any websites that allow users to create public web pages or profiles, chat rooms or e-mail, and is the centerpiece of a Republican effort called the “Suburban Agenda.” It is not completely clear if this ban would affect sites that are not social networking sites.

As Will Richardson writes today on his blog…

So the dopey House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed DOPA, and we’ve got to get our acts together to make sure Senators have more of a clue about what’s happening with technology out here in the “real” world. I wonder how many of them come even close to “getting” everything that’s shifting and changing, the way we are connecting, the learning that’s happening in social spaces, the fact that this bill takes away our ability to teach our students in meaningful, realistic ways not only how they can stay safe, but even more importantly, how they can learn, network, interact, and become continuous learners.

I’m really pissed at the media on a number of levels, first for they way they have sensationalized the whole MySpace issue into ratings by pumping up shows that “catch” online predators and stories that almost celebrate the ignorance of kids who aren’t being taught not to trust the people they meet online and to keep personal information private. They’ve preyed on the ignorance of the masses who really aren’t paying close attention and just scared them into thinking that there is danger at every turn, when in reality our kids are more at risk for sexual predation from their family members than online.

Just wanted to pass this along. It seems that it keeps getting harder and harder to convince people that education is the way to teaching our children how to use the Internet responsibly.

Will Richardson has a good post about a recent article in the New York Times:

Here’s the lead from a New York Post article today titled MySpace Invaders for City Students:

City public-school students better beware what they blog when classes resume in September.
A revised draft version of the city Department of Education discipline code calls for harsh punishments – including expulsion – forstudents who post “libelous or defamatory material or literature” on the Internet.
Kindergartners to fifth-graders who disparage their teachers, principals or fellow students on the Web could face a finger-wagging parent conference or be suspended for up to 90 days, according to the proposed discipline code.
For students in sixth grade through high school, derogatory online postings would warrant an automatic suspension and could necessitate expulsion under the new rules.
Nowhere in the article does it mention anything about teaching kids appropriate and acceptable use, which doesn’t mean that they’re not doing that, but it makes you wonder. And this approach is just doomed to failure. It’s a “deal with it” moment where the city is choosing to do just the opposite.
Now I know I don’t have to say this, but I’m going to anyway. Welcome to the new world. Resistance is futile. Education is the only answer.

Just like anything else in this world, kids need to LEARN how to do things. They learn when to cross the street, not to talk to strangers, and come home before dark. Why is the Internet any different? Why is their so much propaganda about the Internet being “bad” without any mention of how to educate our kids to use it responsibly? Since it is still very new to many people, they are automatically scared of it and want to regualte it without looking at it with a trained eye. Hopefully, time will change all of that.